Now on View
MAMA-Girl!
On View: Sept. 27, 2024 - May 10, 2025
The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries at Old ֱ University presents an art exhibition honoring the life and work of Eastern Shore artist and pastor Mary Elizabeth "MAMA-Girl" Onley (1953 - 2018), free and open to the public, with an opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibition will remain on view through May 10, 2025.
You are invited to explore a diverse collection of some 150 artworks and objects from MAMA-Girl’s studio, generously shared with the public by more than a dozen lenders including the Barrier Islands Center and residents of the Eastern Shore, along with others across Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
MAMA-Girl left a lasting impression on so many who enjoyed her company and collected her work. If you would like to join in the tribute, you may share your MAMA-Girl remembrances at or mail them to: Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, 4509 Monarch Way, Norfolk, VA 23508.
For updates, follow @oduarts and @gordonartgalleries on Facebook and Instagram, and learn more about the Gordon Art Galleries at odu.edu/arts.
Dane Winkler: The Hum
Gordon Art Galleries
On view Aug. 30 - Nov. 9, 2024
The Hum is an exhibition of sculpture that explores passing time and transformation through reconstruction. The materials and themes for this body of work were sourced from the farmland in upstate New York where I was raised. The gathering and alteration of these materials, both natural and person made - embodies a curiosity about place - looking into the past as well as the future, and my relationship with these sentiments.
In this context the title does not refer to a vocal hum but instead mysterious reports throughout history of a low frequency sound felt in specific locations across the globe. The Hum is a persistent tone only heard by some people in the regions it has been cited. Although the cause of this phenomenon has never been attributed to one thing, researchers have noted mechanical devices, tinnitus, or wildlife as a potential culprit. The title also attempts to speak to a personal observation of nowness. This place has always been an inspiring source throughout my career. Currently, the ethos of the property is changing, which carries with it immense privilege, responsibility, and complexity. Through observing and examining the land and its structure(s) with a new perspective looking forward… a connection is made between its substance and a notion of self. This exhibition asks if the objects of a place become embedded within its history. How can sculpture be used to re-form the physical reality of objects, altering their identity to conjure a new relationship to space? The items utilized are markers of time in relation to my home in distinct ways. This relates conceptually to a few possible explanations of The Hum mentioned above - tones from military low frequency radio waves, or the illuminating mating call of the Plainfin Midshipman fish. The Hum is the sound or essence of this embedded history.
Through these experiments utilizing design and architectural folly, the vibration is shaped into a new tone or form. The exploration of personal history in context with the mystery of these events extends to the viewer in this way…. challenging how our bodies and thoughts navigate through space.
The Hum is a sound, a feeling, and a question all at once. This body of work reflects on internal and external ideas about how family, agency, and wonder unite with these concepts.
Paintings from the Porch: Works by Jake McCord
On view Jan. 12 - May 4, 2024
Jake McCord (1945 - 2009) of Thomson, Georgia grew up planting and picking crops on his family's farm. He later cut grass and drove a truck for that city, which recognized him as an exceptionally hard worker. In the mid-1980s McCord began to paint and took inspiration from his life and several television sets running simultaneously in his home. He installed paintings on his front porch for passersby to see and would allow them to be sold only after feeling they had been on view for the right amount of time. McCord described his depictions of people, animals, and scenes as jolly, which helped keep him company and which he hoped would help those who saw his work. This exhibition presents a number of those jolly paintings from the porch.
Living with Art: My Journey to Collect
Tuesday, March 12 at 12:30 p.m. EST
Collector of self-taught, folk, and outsider art, Chris Ross shares insights from his passion.
2024 Juried Student Exhibition
On view: Mar. 1, 2024 - Apr. 6, 2024
Featuring artwork from students actively working in the ODU Art Department Studio Arts programs, and selected by a juror who is an active professional within the Visual Arts.
Feb. 3 - May 6, 2023
Sam Bartlett: Low Stakes, Plywood Cutouts & Everyday Comix
Opening Reception: Feb. 2, 6 - 8 p.m.
Sam Bartlett is an American folk artist, public-art instigator,cartoonist, performer, musician,and composer.
As an artist, Sam specializes in painting and cutting sculptures from salvaged wood. He derives inspiration from the naturally low stakes involved in using free materials.
Sam does virtually no planning or sketching for his artwork,preferring to try to harness the energy of a first take. Common themes in his work include complex physical relationships between people, things on top of other things, things being bitten and eaten, old-time and Irish music communities, and mortality. He has been strongly influenced by artists Peter Schumann, Howard Finster,and Gustav Vigeland.
Concrete Ocean: Works by Leigh Merrill
On view Jan.12 through Feb 17, 2024
“Culling through thousands of individual photographs and videos I make of architecture and landscaping; I digitally assemble these sources to create my work. Some images have veracity, but more often, they suggest a visual hyperbole – an embellished scene circulating around a small object or detail. I am continually fascinated with photography’s ability to be evidence of existence – creating an image with seeming veracity – and simultaneously, a system to mediate and construct reality. I use photography to observe and then digitally combine my photographs to construct spaces that do not exist, allowing the creation of images that, through metaphor and illusion, reveal both the desire and simulacrum present around us and within photography itself.”
Gordon the Robot
Affectionately nicknamed "Gordon" after the art galleries' namesakes—Baron and Ellin Gordon—this innovative telepresence robot allows remote visits from around the world.
Gordon can move around the space, raise and lower height, and zoom in on art. The remote driver can interact live with staff in the galleries and also invite friends, colleagues, and students to join their visit.
Follow @oduarts on ,, and for updates.
Proceeds support arts programming and educational opportunities at ODU.
Jan. 21 - May 7, 2022
Art from Guantánamo Bay
RESCHEDULED Opening Reception Jan. 27, 6 - 8 p.m.
Detainees at the United States military prison camp known as Guantánamo Bay have made art from the time they arrived. The Art from Guantánamo Bay exhibition features 101 of these evocative works, made by men held without trial, some for more than 15 years. The six artists include both current (Moath Al Alwi and Ahmed Rabbani) and former (Muhammad Ansi, Abdualmalik (Alrahabi) Abud, Sabri Al Qurashi, Mansoor Adayfi) detainees, none of whom have been charged with committing a crime.
Most pieces in the exhibition were taken from Guantánamo by the detainees' attorneys for this showing and following a laborious process of searching, scanning, and analysis for hidden messages by Guantánamo officials. A stamp reading "Approved by US Forces" signals that a work has been cleared, and the stamp's ink often bleeds through to the image on the other side, creating a ghostly mix of art and authority.
Art from Guantánamo Bay includes drawings and paintings as well as sculptures crafted with the few materials permitted to detainees, including model ships made from shirt scraps, prayer caps, razors, and mops. As former detainee Mansoor Adayfi explains in his New York Times essay "In Our Prison on the Sea," the sea "means freedom that no one can control or own, freedom for everyone." Although detainees were held close to the sea, tarps blocked their view until they were removed for four days in 2014 in anticipation of a hurricane; after that, Adayfi recalls, "all of those who could draw made drawings about the sea."
Follow @oduarts on ,, and for forthcoming public programming.
Aug. 30 - Nov. 12, 2022
DesignHer: Works by Contemporary Women Graphic Designers
Closing Reception Nov. 10, 6 - 8 p.m.
DesignHer is an exhibition of contemporary graphic design focusing on women practitioners. Highlighting how women have been at the forefront of defining and challenging the conceptions of design, the exhibition presents a sampling of the various purposes design is put to in our culture and the motivations that prompted its use. Participants range from younger artists building a reputation to internationally renowned leaders in the discipline, and works range from individually crafted objects to mass media campaigns.
Gain insight from juror Carl Floyd Medley III and students of the 2021 Juried Student Exhibition in this in-depth look at the show! Congratulations to students Lyn Dowling ('21), Andre Jacobs ('21), and Korrine Maher ('21) whose artwork has been selected by the ODU President and First Lady from the Juried Student Exhibition for display in the Jacobson House presidential residence for the 2021-2022 academic year!
About the Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries
The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries exhibit works by nationally and internationally recognized self-taught artists, contemporary artists working in all media, and local and regional artists connected with Old ֱ University.